On Sunday, I decided I wanted to pay a visit to the bookstore that had been on the map the guide had given us on our quick bus tour of the city. I looked at the map and determined what was nearby to give me an idea where to get off the bus. Since I saw that it was fairly close to the train station in the southern part of the city, I decided to get off there and walk the rest of the way. With my new-found Japanese bus skills, getting to the train station was easy enough. Finding the bookstore proved to be a greater challenge, since I had neglected to bring the map with me, instead relying on my memory to guide me. Obviously, I should have paid more attention when looking at the map. I wandered around the train station to see if there was someone to help me. I briefly thought about asking one of the taxi drivers chatting there to take me to the bookstore, but decided against it. I looked at the map in the train station, trying to see if I could figure out where the bookstore was. While I was looking, two sisters(and I mean the Catholic kind, or maybe the Mormon kind, if the Mormons have sisters), came up and asked if they could help me. I told them I was looking for the bookstore and they pointed me in the right direction, adding that it was by three Pachinko parlors. If you're curious how I know they were nuns/sisters, they were wearing badges that said Sister X and Sister Y(no habits involved in that bit of deduction).
Thanks to the information, I headed off on my merry way to the bookstore. I hadn't gotten very far on my way when all of a sudden, one of my Japanese co-workers pulled up beside me and asked what I was doing. I told her I was heading to the bookstore and she offered me a ride. I got in and then she was trying to remember where it was. I told her that it was by the three Pachinko parlors and she instantly knew where I was talking about. Speaking of Pachinko parlors, I had heard a little about them because of my interest in Japanese culture, but I hardly realized how ubiquitous they were. They are literally everywhere in the city. I could probably tell you where at least ten are located, based on the little exploration I have done so far. My co-worker was on her way home from hiking Three Peaks, which is apparently a popular mountain to hike in the area. I heard some people I was walking by the other day mention they had been there also. She took me to the bookstore, I thanked her for the ride, and got out.
In the bookstore, I wandered around a bit, taking it all in. There were a surprising amount of people there, all standing around flipping through various books. I would hardly call it a welcoming atmosphere when I compare it to the bookstores I have been to in the States. It was overly hot and there were no chairs to be seen anywhere, just long narrow rows of books. There was also a music and movie section, but there weren't any chairs there either. Japanese movies also tend to be very expensive. I've seen movies as high as 7000 yen, which is about $70. Most seem to be about $30 - $40. In case you think it was just the bookstore price, I have seen movies that high at several different stores already, so it must be fairly normal. I was looking for books to study for the JLPT, but their selection was limited to books containing copies of past exams, so I passed on those. The person I asked for help understood zero English, even the acronym for the test, which I thought would be more common knowledge, since even the website uses that acronym(the books I saw did too). Only when I used the Japanese name for the test did she understand what I was asking for. I ended up buying three manga volumes, which were reasonably priced, and headed home.
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